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Lee, Vernon (pseudonym of Violet Paget).FOR MAURICE: FIVE UNLIKELY STORIES.
London: John Lane: The Bodley Head Limited, [1927]. Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v [vi-viii] ix-li [lii] [1-2] 3-223 [224: blank] 1-4: ads, original decorated olive-green cloth, front panel stamped in blind and gold, spine panel stamped in gold, top edge stained olive-green, fore and bottom edges untrimmed. First edition. The author's third and last collection of weird fiction, this one dedicated to Maurice Baring. It includes "Tanhuser and the Gods," one of the finest humorous fantasies, "Winthrop's Adventure," "The Virgin of the Seven Daggers," and two others, as well as a long, interesting introduction on the sources for the stories. Lee's weird fiction earned the praise of Montague Summers, who equated her talent to that of M. R. James. "Lee's stories are really in a category by themselves. Intelligent, amusingly ironic, imaginative, original, they deserve more than the passing attention that they have attracted." - Sullivan (ed), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, pp. 256-57. "Marsyas in Flanders" is a "fine antiquarian tale but too early to have been directly influenced by M. R. James (it was written in 1900)." - Pardoe, The James Gang, p. 11. Ashley, Who's Who in Horror and Fantasy Fiction, p. 114. Barron (ed), Horror Literature 2-48. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 991. Tymn (ed), Horror Literature 3-141. Wilson, Shadows in the Attic, p. 326. Bleiler (1978), p. 121. Reginald 08777. NCBEL III 1445. Bookplate of noted fantastic fiction collector Oswald Train affixed to front paste-down. Top edge stain a bit faded, a fine, bright, unopened copy in fine printed dust jacket. A stunning copy of a book seldom found in jacket. (#130627).

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